The federal government announced in the 2017 Budget that it would remove a capital gains tax (CGT) exemption for around 100,000 expatriate Australians who sell their main residence while overseas. While the measure was projected to raise $581 million over the forward estimates, it has been condemned by tax and legal experts as being “unjustifiably bad policy”, and will discourage Australians who are thinking of going overseas to work.
The government has given non-resident Australians until 30 June to sell their home under existing rules, even though legislation to enact the measure had yet to pass into law.
